empty streets
by Writeous
Summary: Of all the ways that Jason had thought that this night would go, he definitely hadn't expected to end up cooped up inside a dirty phone booth, desperately waiting for some girl that he had never met to come rescue him.


Jason knew he shouldn't have left early. New York was winding and unfamiliar, but he'd felt confident that he'd be able to find his way back to Percy's apartment. Unfortunately, Jason seemed to have overestimated his own tracking skills, because he was absolutely positive he hadn't seen this street before. Jason didn't want to risk the subway, (too cramped, too many people, hard to escape,) but he would if he had to.

A chill went down his spine, stopping Jason in his tracks. The December air made his every breath visible, but this was a different kind of shiver. Jason was being followed. Monster or mortal, he couldn't tell. He squeezed the comforting warmth of Iulius in his pocket. If it was a monster, Jason would be fine, or, well, as fine as he could be. If it was a mortal, well-

Jason would rather not think about that.

He risked a glance over his shoulder. Jason had cut a quick shortcut through an alley in his attempt to find busier street where he could ask someone for directions. Now, it seemed to have backfired. He was the only one in the alleyway.

For a moment, there seemed to be nothing there, and Jason felt something in his chest loosen.

Then, movement from the shadows. Jason watched, frozen in horror, as a figure emerged into the alley's murky light. It wore a dark trench coat, buttoned up to the neck. The sleeves of the coat seemed stretched, but Jason couldn't tell whether it was from human muscle or monster. It wasn't tall, but it wasn't exactly short, either. A tilted fedora covered its face, but Jason could tell that it was watching him.

Jason took a sharp breath and turned around. He started walking away. Sure, he was maybe being stalked. He'd been fighting monsters for over a decade now; he knew he could handle one even if it tried to jump him. If it was a mortal, then they would have no way of knowing he was a demigod, right?

Jason could hear footsteps start behind him, echoing loudly. After a few harrowing moments, they started getting faster.

He broke into a run. The footsteps kept pace.

He finally emerged from the mouth of the alley, panting, only to find himself on a deserted street lined with closed shops and boarded up windows. _What kind of New York street is deserted, anyway?_ he thought to himself frantically, searching for a place to go. _The City That Never Sleeps, my foot._

There was an empty telephone booth on the corner of another darkened street. Jason sprinted for it. He nearly slammed into the dirty glass as he threw himself into the booth. The hinges groaned as he forced it shut, and he had just managed to lock it behind him as he saw the figure emerge, chest heaving. Jason watched as it turned, scanning the entire length of the street. Jason prayed to any of the gods that were listening that it wouldn't see him, cowering inside a two-by-two feet glass box. He hadn't felt this terrified in ages, and gods, was he hyperventilating? Crap.

The figure turned, and Jason could almost sense the exact moment it saw him. They stared at each other for a long enough time that Jason hoped the figure would just get bored and walk away.

It didn't.

Jason fought to get his breathing under control. He'd defeated Titans before, so whatever this was, he would get through this too. He just needed to think about this logically. He was safe in the phone booth for now. He was in an unfamiliar city, on an unfamiliar street corner.

Well, maybe not.

There was a street post on the corner near him. Jason squinted at it, trying to read it in the flickering light. He was able to decipher a 74 on the side facing to him. The other was nearly impossible to read, just until he practically shoved himself into the narrow space between the phone and the glass. It looked like a 3, but from his angle, it could possibly be an 8.

Okay. Corner of 74th and 3rd, or maybe 74th and 8th. That was … well, that was something.

Now, he just had to figure out how to get out. He didn't know where the nearest busy street was, where he could just pull up his hood and disappear into the crowd. He didn't know if the figure had backup, or how far it was willing to go to follow him.

Jason glanced back at the figure. Still standing there, exactly as it had been, just watching him. Jason shivered, not completely from the cold. Creepy.

He didn't own a phone. Unlike Percy and Annabeth, Jason had never felt the need to get one. They attracted monsters, and it was usually easier to just send an Iris message. Jason wanted to smack himself. As soon as he got out of this, he was going to buy the first phone he set eyes on. He hoped it would be a flip phone: he needed to relieve some stress.

Unless…

Jason's eyes were drawn to the pay phone. He wasn't even aware that those still existed, much less if they worked. Well, it was worth a shot.

Hesitantly, he picked up the phone. He wrinkled his nose. It was faintly sticky, and the paint was peeling off, revealing mottled gray metal underneath. He entered Percy's number in the keypad by memory and waited.

All the phone gave him was a long beep.

Jason's hand shook as he took it away from his ear. The figure was still standing there, watching him.

It was then that he remembered the "pay" part of "pay phone."

Jason put the phone back in the cradle and began to search his pockets. He had Iulius, of course, and a handful of drachmas, but he doubted any mortal pay phone would take that. He had to have a couple of quarters around here somewhere.

He managed to find one, finally. He weaved it through his fingers anxiously with the same practiced ease that he used with Iulius. He didn't dare take out Iulius itself. He couldn't risk flipping it on instinct. It was illegal to draw a weapon towards a mortal, and if this was the type of mortal that Jason thought it was, (and it was a mortal, he was sure of that now,) then it wouldn't hesitate to report him for anything.

He pushed the quarter through the slot, praying that it wouldn't ask for another. He only had the one on him, which would buy him, what, five minutes of time? Ten? He wasn't sure.

Again, he entered in Percy's number, watching the figure in trepidation as the phone rang once, twice, five times. He had a brief moment of panic that Percy wouldn't pick up and instead leave him all alone.

Finally, someone did. A girl's voice filtered through, "Hey! Percy's phone here. Not Percy, but, you know, his phone."

Jason blinked. "Who are you?" he asked, dumbfounded. If it was a friend of Percy, then they were probably trustworthy. Enough for him to ask to drive to who-knows-where and get him? He wasn't sure.

"I'm Piper," the girl – Piper - said, "Annabeth's friend. Who's this?" And after a pause, "Are you okay?"

Jason swallowed. "I'm Jason," he said. "I'm a friend of Percy's. And, I, um," his throat felt dry, "no, I'm not okay."

"What?" Piper said. "What's wrong? What's happening?"

Jason swallowed, unsure of how much he could tell her. She was both Annabeth and Percy's friend, but friend didn't necessarily equal demigod. Finally, he said, "There's some guy. He's been following me." His hand came up subconsciously to rub at the back of his neck. Admitting it like this made him feel almost ashamed. He'd been through worse, much worse, than this. "And I've kind of, um, I've kind of locked myself inside a phone booth."

There's a long pause, and for a second, Jason was terrified that Piper had hung up. When she spoke again, her voice was lowered. "Monster or mortal?" she asked, insistent.

Jason pulled away from the phone and took a moment to stare at it before responding. Finally, he replied, "Mortal. Definitely mortal. But they're being really weird. They're just standing there, watching me. It's creepy." He shuddered, and asked the thing he'd been suspecting all along. "Do you think-?"

He heard Piper mutter a curse that he couldn't fully make out. "Probably," she said. "Jason, where are you?"

He sagged against the wall of the phone booth. Hearing Piper, a girl he didn't even know beyond a few words, agree, made the situation feel a lot more real. The recently implemented Demigod Relocation Act had been pushed through Congress at lightning speed, and now authorities were picking up any and all demigods they could find. Jason had heard the horror stories of demigods who'd been forced to move to the "permanently undisclosed" location because of the DRA, and he was determined not to join their ranks.

"74th and 3rd, I think," Jason told her. "But maybe 74th and 8th, I can't read it well."

"Okay," Piper said. "I'm coming to get you. Stay on the phone?"

"Yeah," Jason said, shakily. "Yeah, okay." The figure stared at him, twenty yards away, unmoving. "Please hurry," he added quietly.

He heard the sound of an engine start up. "I'll do the best I can," Piper said.

For a moment, neither of them said anything. Jason listened to the soft sound of her breathing and the distant noises of traffic in the background. It was a welcome change from the eerie silence around him.

Finally, Piper said conversationally, "I didn't even know they still had phone booths."

Jason laughed nervously. "Same here. Although, if you must know, it's absolutely disgusting in here."

"I'll bet," Piper said, and wow, he'd never heard a prettier voice before. He wondered who her parent was, but didn't ask. Many, if not all, public phone lines were tapped by the government, - and some private ones too, which Jason tried not to think about - so they had to be careful with what they said. Another reason why Jason didn't keep a phone. Another reason why he wanted to punch himself in the face.

Jason, trying to keep the conversation going, asked, "Where are Percy and Annabeth? It's not like Percy to leave his phone behind."

"No," Piper agreed slowly. "But I know Annabeth took hers. They left in a hurry," she added thoughtfully, and Jason could almost hear the frown in her voice, "and they wouldn't tell me where they were going either. They told me to stay in the apartment. Well," she said, "see how that turned out."

The phone gave a warning beep. Jason's breath quickened. "Piper, the phone's beeping at me. Why is the phone beeping at me?" He looked back at the figure. It was holding something up to its ear. "Crap. The person's on the phone, I think." After a pause, he added in a small voice, "Piper?"

"Jason," Piper said, and the sound of her voice alone made him feel more relaxed. "Jason, stay calm, okay? Stay with me here. 74th and 3rd, right?"

Jason found himself nodding, even though she couldn't see him, "Or 74th and 8th, yeah." He watched the figure. Its face was turned towards their phone, and although Jason couldn't hear them, he could tell that the conversation was getting heated.

"You're on a pay phone, right? The line's probably about to die. Do you have another quarter?"

"No."

"Okay, okay," Piper said. "I'm almost there, I think. Give me a couple more minut-"

The line went dead with a click.

"Piper?" Jason asked, desperate. "Piper, can you hear me? Piper?"

A resounding beep was the only reply.

Jason stared at the phone, hit with a sudden bout of loneliness. He couldn't bring himself to put it back in the cradle.

The figure was still on the phone. Jason may have been imagining it, but it seemed closer than before. Jason shrunk into the corner farthest away, holding the phone to his chest. He briefly cursed his entire existence. He'd never felt this weak in his entire life. He was a son of Zeus, for the gods' sake!

Not that that would really help him here. It was illegal to use your powers against a mortal. Jason would probably get thrown in jail just for making it rain on the guy.

Maybe it hadn't been the best idea to hide in a phone booth. Jason remembered accidentally revealing his powers in the first grade. Teachers would give him detentions and time-outs for barely any reason. He remembered kids, kids that he'd once considered friends, whispering words like "freak" and "unnatural." He remembered being left out of group activities, being shoved into dark closets smaller than the space he was in now. It was times like that that he had resented Thalia, who had joined the Hunters of Artemis and left Jason alone with their mother before he had even hit double-digits.

Maybe that was why he liked the open-air so much. Jason had never considered himself to be claustrophobic before, but-

The figure was definitely closer now. The phone was gone, but it was holding something else. It was hard to see, but it looked vaguely rectangular in shape. Double prongs stuck out of one side. Jason shivered. It looked vaguely like a taser, and Jason hoped that was what it was. It wasn't illegal to use just a bit of your power to redirect something away from you, as long as you're not directly attacking the person aiming it. Jason might get in trouble for resisting arrest, but he was getting ahead of himself. He remembered Piper's voice when she told him "calm down," and how it had taken away some of the stress of the situation. He hoped she would come soon.

He noticed belatedly that he was holding Iulius, subconsciously reached for his main method of defense. Of course, it would pass straight through a mortal, and while it was completely harmless to them, Jason could get in trouble just for being caught holding either of the weapons it brought. Most mortals were aware that they couldn't be hurt by either Imperial Gold or Celestial Bronze, but just the sight of a demigod carrying a weapon was enough to send them all into a panic.

Percy had told Jason a story about a demigod he'd once known named Luke. Luke had gotten fed up with how demigods were treated, by both the magical and mortal worlds. _"So,"_ Percy had said, in a dark, hushed voice, _"Luke had made a sword that was half celestial bronze and half mortal steel."_

 _"Isn't that impossible?"_ Jason had asked, eyes wide.

 _"He had it custom made by Telekhines,"_ Percy said, _"in the forges of Hephaestus himself."_

 _"What happened to him?"_ Jason asked, unsure if he actually wanted to hear the answer.

Percy had stood up, avoiding Jason's eyes. _"What do you think?"_ he'd asked, bitterness thick in his voice. _"He got caught, and the Feds carted him off. He's long gone now, probably."_

Jason had watched as Percy had walked away. Right before the older boy had turned the corner out of the living room, he'd paused. Over his shoulder, he had said, _"See, Jason, it's not the monsters you have to look out for. Monsters are easy. Monsters are black and white. You know exactly what they want. Mortals are the ones to worry about. You never know which mortal will lay down their lives for you, or which ones will stab you in the back and call themselves a hero for doing it. Sometimes humans are more dangerous than the gods could ever hope to be."_

A small Sudan pulled up to the curb. Jason couldn't see much through the tinted windows, but he could make out the vague silhouette of a girl sitting in the driver's seat. The silhouette made an exaggerated waving motion.

Okay. So all Jason had to do was to unlock the phone booth's door and sprint over to Piper's car, all before the figure could shoot him with that taser-looking thing.

Of course, the door was facing the figure, so he'd have to go towards it before he could even get close to Piper.

Fun. Alright. Jason had done more with higher stakes. He could do this.

Very slowly, he put the pay phone back on its cradle, absentmindedly wiping the sticky residue off of his hand onto his jeans. Without looking away from figure's eyes, (or well, where he thought the figure's eyes were), Jason unlocked the pay phone door.

Jason took a deep breath to steady himself and shifted his weight to the balls of his feet. Then he shoved the door open with his shoulder. For a brief, terrifying moment, Jason and the figure stood face to face. Under the hat, Jason could see a long scar tracing down its face, from just above its left eyebrow to the corner of its mouth.

Jason pivoted and ran towards Piper's car, narrowly evading the edge of the phone booth as he did. He heard something whine to life behind him, and dodged right on instinct. He saw a bright, concentrated beam of light shoot past him and scorch the wall of a building.

Piper threw open the passenger-side door, and Jason dived in. Before he was even fully in the seat, Piper floored it, leaving the figure behind. A bright flash of light followed, but it missed the car completely. Jason managed to pull both of his legs into the car and close the door just as Piper made a turn at a speed that was most definitely illegal.

Jason was breathing heavily, still coursing with adrenaline. He swallowed. "Thanks," he said.

"No problem," Piper replied, glancing at the rear-view mirror. "What was that?" she asked. "The light gun whatever?"

Jason shook his head. "I'm not sure. There was an electric current, but nothing that I could recognize."

Piper glanced at him in surprise. "You can recognize electrical currents? Put on your seat belt."

"Um, yeah," Jason said as he did. "I'm a son of Zeus."

She let out a whistle. "Aphrodite," she responded to his unasked question. She looked over at him. "Are you sure you're okay?"

At the speeds she was going, Jason half wanted to tell her to please look at the road, please please please, he did not go through all of that just to be killed in a car wreck.

On the other hand, Piper had the prettiest eyes he'd ever seen. It may have been the flickering lights, but he couldn't tell if they were blue or green or brown, or some beautiful combination of the three. He could stare into those eyes forever. "Yeah," he said. "Yeah, I'm fine."

It was obvious that Piper didn't like his answer, but she nodded anyway, turning back to the road. "Okay. We're gonna go pick up Percy and Annabeth now."

"What? Why?" Jason asked, dread replacing the adrenaline. "What happened?"

Piper shook her head. "I don't know, but my Piper-sense is tingling. They're in danger, and I gotta go kick the butt of whoever's doing it. You with me?"

"'Course," Jason said, sitting straighter in his seat. "I'm always up for some good butt-kicking."

Piper smiled, just a small twitch of the corner of her mouth, and barreled down the road.

* * *

It's been forever since I posted a story, omg. I apologize if it's riddled with typos.

Just a short little fic I wrote for fun! I know absolutely nothing about how New York City and phone booths work.

This is a cool au and I may end up writing more for it.


End file.
